The Kh-35 is more than sufficient for most roles. I don't think the Ka-52 is meant for attacking cruisers or destroyers.

Never hurts to have a choice... if detected early enough even a stinger can be used against low flying subsonic missiles like the Kh-35. MANPADS would have serious trouble with a Mach 3 Kh-31 no matter how much warning is given as a relatively small missile viewed end on covering almost a kilometre a second is a difficult target.

BTW the picture above of the Kh-31 I posted which shows an external rocket booster has also been shown under a weapon pylon on a Su-35 at MAKS, which makes me wonder if it really is just a solid rocket booster for slow or stationary launch platforms, or if this is the new versions of the Kh-31 with double the range performance (ie Kh-31PD and Kh-31AD).

Cyberspec wrote:"Helicopters of Russia" and the Defense Ministry signed a contract to supply 140 helicopters Ka-52 for 20 billion rubleshttp://www.interfax-russia.ru/FarEast/news.asp?id=256474&sec=1671

Wait a sec .... WoW 140 Ka-52 Hellos are ordered???? or just typo from newsman?

I think they will have about 16 Ka-52s per Mistral, which means 64 aircraft just to fully equip the four ships they intent to buy. You would want at least the same number spare for training and of course to allow for down time for overhauls and updates.

Being naval models they will likely need extra maintainence too in the form of washing off the salt.

That leaves another ten or so perhaps for the ground forces to increase force numbers.

Well that is good news, they were only originally going to use 30-32 Ka-52s but it is pretty clear they have found the funds to buy more.

Wonder if this is at the cost of Mi-28Ns or in addition to.

I remember the talk of 30-32 Ka-52s was for special forces use, but the focus since seems to have been to make the Ka-52 a scout/recon helo... which previously the Russians have been using the light Mi-2 helo in that role.

The Mi-2 now out of favour because it is very old and not produced in Russia, but the Ka-52 is quite a different aircraft from the Mi-2.

There are new UAVs developed that can be carried in large pods carried under wing pylons that will make the two seat Ka-52 a very useful scout helo... with the ability to send UAVs into harms way to find targets and threats without exposing the helo to any direct danger.

Must say I am really pleased they are buying the Hokums as well as the Havocs.

They are different enough to be worth buying both... the Hokums will be particularly good in mountains and at altitude, while the Havocs will be cheaper to maintain and operate and offer excellent punch for the cost.

History of the Kamov Ka-50 (named Black-shark or Werewolf) combat helicopter is almost 20 years old. Its development was initiated after the preliminary project was prepared by the Kamov designing office, in December 1977. The new combat aircraft was intended to become a counterweight to the USA attack machine “AH-64 Apache“ which was included in the US Army arsenal in 1976. Mr. Sergei Mikheyev, chief designer of the Kamovs designing office, took that office of the beginning of the 70s, after the Nikolai I. Kamov died, with whom he used to have a close co-operation since as early as the 60s. Typical for the predecessors of this helicopter were primarly two symmetrical coaxial rotors. In addition to the older Ka-10s, Ka-15s, and Ka-18s, as well as to Kamov Ka-26s, it was the Ka-27, Ka-29 and Ka-32 types which have been widely used especialy by marine air force. Based on the experience acquired from their operation, a project of a new helicopter designed for ground forces was originated.

Various prototypes and pre-series versions of the Kamov Ka-50 Werewolf combat helicopter have already been existing for last years. The Kamov Ka-50 Werewolf was gradually modernised. At the beginning of 2011, its advance type identified as the Black Shark underwent challenging tests. It was demonstrated for the first time, both on a static platform and with live fire in progress, on the Maquatra desert polygon, at the world armament exhibition IDEX ’97 in Abu Dhabi, in March 1997.

source:Kamov Ka-50

Last edited by KamovHelicopter on Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:21 pm; edited 1 time in total

There is a photo on the latest Takeoff magazine that shows a new model Ka-52 with 6 wing pylons instead of 4.

In the past I have seen drawings with 6 weapon pylons for the Hokum series with the normal loadout on the inner two pylons of two 20 shot 80mm rocket pods on the inner pylon and two loads of 6 Vikhr-M on the two middle pylons and twin Igla launchers on the two outer pylons.

Vikhr can be used against aircraft, but dedicated air to air missiles makes sense too.